The idea of a smartphone-powered laptop isn’t new. The Asus Padfone, part of Asus’ Transformer project, was launched in 2012 and allowed users to connect a phone to a tablet and dock it to a keyboard dock. In 2017, Mirabook launched a smartphone-powered laptop, and in 2021 came the Nexdock 360, which went a step further but only worked with phones that offered a “wired display” via USB-C.
I was reminded of these past projects and more when I saw UPERFECT’s UDock X 15.6 Pro wireless laptop stand. It’s primarily designed to work with Samsung DeX, but can be used with other phones and is currently priced at $409.99, a significant savings from the usual price of $629.99.
The Chinese manufacturer has over the years made several docks that turn a connected smartphone, tablet or mini PC into a workstation that looks and behaves like a laptop. It's a clever solution aimed at increasing productivity for professionals, although, as you might expect, it has some drawbacks, one of them being latency.
Who moved my touchpad?
The X 15.6 Pro features a 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) 10-point IPS touchscreen with a 120Hz refresh rate. It supports wired, wireless, and Bluetooth connections, allowing users to easily mirror a smartphone’s display onto the larger screen, useful for tasks that would benefit from a larger viewing area, such as document editing. The display’s ability to fold 360-degrees allows for adjustable viewing angles, ensuring ergonomic comfort over long periods of use.
The Lapdock offers wireless charging, so users can charge a smartphone by simply placing it on the charging area above the keyboard. The dock has a 10800 mAh battery, which provides enough power for up to 6 hours of high-quality video playback or 4 to 5 hours of Samsung DeX usage.
While wireless charging sounds like a great feature, it does mean that the touchpad has been moved from the bottom of the keyboard to the right. However, if you're right-handed and used to using a mouse on that side, you'll likely adjust to this fairly quickly.
The X 15.6 Pro includes an on-screen display (OSD) menu, allowing users to adjust settings like brightness and color directly. It comes with two USB Type-C ports (one full-featured, one power-only), a USB Type-A OTG port for an external mouse and keyboard, mini HDMI, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a microSD card reader. There are also two 2W speakers.
